Caption: William Tyndale (c. 1492-1536). Statue of the English theologian and bible translator William Tyndale. Tyndale's was the first English translation to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the first to take advantage of the new medium of print. This allowed for its wide distribution. It was pronounced heretical in England, so his Bibles were smuggled into the country in bales of cloth. Those discovered owning them were punished. At first only the books were destroyed, but soon heretics were burned too - including Tyndale himself in 1536. Photographed on the Victoria Embankment, London, UK.